Breast Feeding

Gas and breastfeeding

11/06/2003

Question:

I have a 5 months old daughter. She is exclusively breasfed. And she is extremely gassy. Even now she wakes up several times at night just to pass gas. And some times she starts crying and I have to feed her to calm down. I am really afraid that it is my fault, because since last months of pregnancy I started passing too much gas. And I still do. I removed all potentially gassy foods from my diet. But it does not seem to have much difference. Is it because of the breastfeeding? Or did I get some kind of intestine desease? Can it be warms? If I have gas, does this mean that food does not get processed properly and "gassy" ingredience get passed to my breastmilk?

Answer:

There are many things in you diet that could cause your child discomfort. One of major problems is an allergy or new foods in mom’s diet. Does your family have a history of food allergies? If there is a family history of food allergies, the child has a 30-60% chance of also have allergies. Often times it takes ten days to two weeks to completely remove all of the offending food from your system. If you are taking medications or any type of dietary or health supplements they could also contribute the problem, and should be discussed with a lactation consultant and your daughter’s health care provider. One thing you should do is keep a food diary for two weeks, and also record your daughter’s reactions and sleep patterns. Then look at each day and see if there is a pattern that emerges. If you don’t see something I would recommend that you take your diaries to a lactation consultant or a nutritionist who is familiar with breast feeding, and see if they are able to identify any patterns. As for your other health issues, you need to discuss those with your personal health care provider.

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